Bexhill Rowing Club enjoy inaugural south east beach sprint event

All athletes where challenged from the start with strong wind and tide conditions but this didn't put off Bexhill Rowing Club single scullers.

Conditions meant the racing took longer than planned and towards the end of the day the double events had to be cancelled.

Taya & Amberly were disappointed to not race but joined parents and supporters to cheer their teammates proudly.

Bexhill's Alumni Ebony Hutton-Mitchel represented Nottinghamshire County Rowing Association and placed 3rd in her contest with a time of 2:57.99.

Bexhill also cheered loudly for Gabrielle Ward of the University of Kent who has been championing coastal rowing at her university as Senior Captain. She encouraged her uni team mates to attend and organised a guest team training visit to her home club of Bexhill, which greatly helped transition those used to far calmer river conditions.

Bexhill had strong representation in the Open & J18 single scull.

In the J18s event Bexhill’s Sebastian Ward placed 10th with a time of 2:59.79 and Herbie Molton placed 6th with a speedy time of 2:50.19.

In the Adult Open category, Byron Cramp unfortunately narrowly missing the turn incurred a 60 second penalty so finished 12th with a time total time of 3:58.00. This was a fantastic race where even with this penalty he had a faster time than half his category.

Chris Botha had extra pressure as the event had paused the race before his to hold an emergency meeting to consider safety of the weather conditions, organisers threatening they'd be forced to cancel the whole event if anyone else capsized.

Even with these extra nerves Chris had a great race and placed 7th with a time of 2:59.84.

This new event to the area involves a sprint down the beach, a fine tuned leap into the boat held by team mate boat handlers and then a sprint directly out into the waves, boat handlers signaling navigation towards bouys and then a 180° turn then a race back to shore, be caught by the boat handlers and a well timed leap from the boat to finish with a sprint back up the beach!

This Beach Sprint event is fantastic sport for athletes and spectators and has been added to LA 2028 Olympics.

The next even for Bexhill Rowing Club will be back to the traditional style of 2km raced in lanes parallel to the shoreline the Viking Shield hosted by Herne Bay on April 26.

Bexhill also eagerly await their home regatta on Sunday, June 15. Spectators are welcome to this as well as other local clubs hosting events - Hastings, Saturday, June 14, or Eastbourne, Saturday, May 10. These are all weather (wind and waves) permitting.

If you are interested in joining Bexhill Rowing Club, for recreational or competitive rowing the club committee and coaches are exploring opening sessions to new members for the spring/summer season. Please contact [email protected]